Communicating

Major events of the day: Countdown to Court 3 of 7, A Little Walking, and Makin' Mama Proud!

Pretty chilly outside this morning! Between the lingering dampness from yesterday’s rain and the cooler temperatures, we’re going to break out some warmer clothes today. According to MSN weather, this morning’s temperature reading was: “28 degrees, feels like 23.” At least it’s sunny and the wind died down.

Although we want to get out and do some sight seeing, we have not done much walking since the weather has turned cooler. It still warms up a little in the afternoons, but it gets dark shortly after we return from our afternoon visits to the orphanage. Today we did go for a short walk and wandered over to the Skif and visit with Elizabeth from Richmond. It was our first venture in that direction, so we walked right past the hotel since the only sign on that side was for a café. Not knowing exactly how far it was, but suspecting we had gone too far, we turned around then saw the sign on the side of a building down a wide alley. Fortunately we have been working on our Cyrillic alphabet or we would have never found it since the sign was in script form instead of the block letters we are accustomed to reading.

While we were out and about we walked past an older Russian house (now a shop) of a log cabin design with very ornate woodworking around the windows and door. We’re not sure why there would be a water pump along the sidewalk, but it appeared to have been used recently.


On the way back to our apartment we passed by the old mosque. We wonder what the neighbors think when they play the call to prayer five times a day…

We also forgot to mention all the mud each time it rains. To further complicate matters, most of the driveway crossings end up looking similar to small ponds. Don't forget your waders.

We stopped at the HAH Plus (pronounced “Nan”) store on the way back to our apartment since Masha recommended it for having a wide selection of fresh-baked breads. It is somewhere between a convenience store and a small grocery store with a bakery section in the back. We’re not sure what the business arrangement is, but the bakery has its own cash register, so you pay for baked items separately from the rest of your items. Although it is close to our apartment, it was good that we only picked up a few things because when we paid for our groceries there wasn’t a friendly bagger, nor were there bags for our groceries (must be a bring-your-own-bag store?). Good thing Masha wasn’t with us! We do enough without trying to amuse her….this certainly would have had her in stitches.

Sasha met us at our normal time, but Masha surprised us by letting us fly solo since she had some documents to file with the Department of Guardianship. Traffic was very light today, so we arrived a few minutes earlier than usual, so the children were not waiting for us at the gate today. Instead, they were just inside the main door and surprised to see us since we were early.

First thing on today’s agenda was to go outside for a few minutes since it warmed up to about 50 this afternoon. One of LG’s friends came along and we enjoyed watching everyone swing on the bars. LB told us he wanted to go find a soccer ball and quickly scampered away in search of one. He came back empty handed and disappointed that he couldn’t find one. Despite the slight chill in the air, the mosquitoes were swarming. They must know really cold weather is coming soon and were trying to get that last drop of blood out of us before the cold gets them. They didn’t get much out of us, but did send us back inside to play some Uno and review some English.

LG still wanted to play, but came along. LB wanted to ask Cathe what was on our agenda as well as a couple other questions. What he was really trying to do was to negotiate the order of English and computer time. He is quickly learning to use the Russian-English dictionary and is trying hard to communicate. While Bill and LG were taking more pictures (we’re now well over 1,000 shots taken since arriving), LB quickly pulled Cathe aside to discuss his important questions. LB is excited that she tries so hard to understand. Cathe in return told LB how proud she was that he was using the dictionary to communicate. LB beamed with pride while Cathe was misty eyed! They had a nice talk.

Since a few more of LG’s friends came in and LB was working so hard to communicate, we never did get to the intended Uno game. There will be time for that later. Meanwhile, we made some serious headway today in the communications and understanding department. Both LB and LG are very bright and eager to learn. We’re very happy to know that there is already a circle of friends back home that are just as eager to help too.

Side note: LB and Cathe used the dictionary together last week when we were flying solo. He’s quickly catching on to the mechanics. The next day Masha asked LB if he had ever used a dictionary and he quickly replied, “Of course!” When she asked how often, he admitted that it was only once and that had been the day before. OY VEY!

After the discussion time, LB got to dig out the computer to the read questions and answers from students at his new school. We have been collecting questions from Cathe’s Computer Lab students and sharing them with the kids. We also asked LB and LG to tell us what they would like to know about their new school and classmates, and then e-mailed it off. Responses have been flooding in and are making quite an impression on both of them. Although they will be sad leaving some friends behind, they are already excited about meeting new friends.

Meanwhile, LG worked with Bill on the alphabet and drew a picture of her favorite part of the last two weeks. She had a little competition today from one of her friends who was “winning” more M&Ms for correct answers. She was a little miffed at first, but realized there were plenty of “rewards” to go around and got serious about paying attention. We even recorded a little of LG singing part of the alphabet song, along with the occasional pause to smile, or stick out her tongue, at the camera.

Their Learning Time was wrapped up with Cathe showing translations to the letter that LG had written to her soon to be new friend Kate. LB looked over at Cathe and told her he was proud of her. (More misty eyed looks) LB helped Cathe with the words she was unfamiliar with. So Kate will get her email later this evening. LB graded Cathe’s work and said she gets a 5 for effort, but only a 4 on the translation. She’s working on it, but the Cyrillic alphabet is still very confusing.

The real topper for today’s learning session came when LB asked a complete interrogative sentence, “Tomorrow will Mama, Papa, LB, LG and Masha go to the Café?” This certainly caught our attention since it was far from the subject at hand, but has obviously been something on both their minds since we went there two weekends ago (has it been that long already?!?!?). LG perked up since Bill and I smiled. Looks like we’ll just have to go now to reward his attempt at communication!

Ludmilla, the teacher whose classroom we have been occupying in the afternoons, has absolutely great timing. She brought us four little pieces of birthday cake as we were wrapping up. Since the cake was in her room, our guess is that it was in her honor. We’ll have to pick up a card tomorrow while we’re out and about. Although we cannot hold a conversation, she and Cathe have really hit it off. (you know how Teachers can be when they get together!) Anyway, the cake was very tasty and had a spongy graham cracker taste. It was obvious the children enjoyed the cake and left to wash the sticky glaze/icing from their hands.

On another side note about teachers…a few days Bill was telling LB and LG about their new school and mentioned that he had heard that their new informatics teacher (computer teacher) is a pretty hard teacher. LB smiled and said “I heard the same thing too!” (he catches on quickly)

Five o’clock comes too soon each day, and it was time to leave. One thing we have not mentioned in detail so far is that the kids are not sad to see us leave (although both caregivers have related to us that the kids miss us later in the evening). The reason is that 5 pm is “Snack Time!” We know the hour has arrived because we can hear the voices and activity in what we call, “The Forbidden Hallway,” where kids duck into the cafeteria to get a bread roll or piece of fruit. (Cathe calls it the forbidden hallway because our kids follow the others down the hallway for their snack, but we don’t see them come back.) If it were Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, we would say it’s pretty close to a feeding frenzy, so don’t stand in their way!

Sasha was waiting for us, so we were soon on our way back to the place where we are staying until the day when we can all go home together. Another great day to report for the blog.

Dinner was another adventure in guessing. We bought a frozen pizza yesterday at the Iceberg. How hard can that be? We do take-and-bake pizzas from Costco all the time and the picture on the box looked pretty appetizing. Are there any indicators on our mini-oven for temperature settings? Nope! And since the stove does not have a pilot light or electronic ignition, we had to light the oven the old fashioned way. Thankfully there is a box of matches in the kitchen, and Bill remembered how to do that from a very long time ago. We started on LOW setting and worked our way up the dial until it came out just right, and very tasty. Other than adding a little leftover onion from last night’s salad, we didn’t do a thing to it. Thankfully, primarily due to Ludmilla’s birthday cake, we were not very hungry because the pizza was a lot smaller than the box it came in.